Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34
When I was a kid in school, I found myself constantly thinking about tomorrow—what I intended to do as soon as I could get out of the classroom and get moving. The young often dream of tomorrow, thinking of what they are going to do; the old often focus on yesterday—what they have done. You know the attitude, “The older I am, the better I was!” With each telling of the story, the fish gets bigger or the hero, more brave.
However, in between the poles of yesterday and tomorrow is today, which can be lost, sandwiched between the two; nonetheless, life is a continuum. Today is the tomorrow I thought about yesterday, and eventually it’s going to be the yesterday of life’s tomorrow. I believe in living for today since it’s the only day in my life I can do anything about, and not dream too much about “what I’m going to do tomorrow” or spend a lot of time thinking about what I’ve already done. Living for today is important.
The Bible is full of warnings about being presumptuous—of putting things off until tomorrow, of assuming that it’s a sure thing. James wrote, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.” Then he asks a serious question: “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:13-14).
At the same time, I think we often fail to see the importance of tomorrow. Living for just today, we often ignore the reality that what happens today is going to affect my tomorrow. If I abuse my body today, it changes how I will feel tomorrow. If I yield to my passions and throw away moral restraints, my tomorrow is going to be vitally changed or impacted. If I ignore common sense and use my credit cards without thinking of how I’m going to repay my debt, my tomorrow is going to be overclouded. That’s the cause-and-effect relationship between today and tomorrow.
Hope that tomorrow can be different, though, is neither presumptuous nor empty. It’s something that is often overlooked. The belief that God can and perhaps will do tomorrow what I’ve asked Him to do today isn’t wishful thinking. It is simply taking into account that God is never in a hurry—that, on occasion, His timetable is different from mine and that He is working while I sleep and accomplishing what I really want but doing it His way, not mine.
Hope has a counterforce—a kind of virus that eats away at the dawn of tomorrow’s hope. It is worry, which causes you to think that tomorrow’s not going to be any different than today, or that yesterday’s failure’s going to catch up with you this afternoon and thus destroy tomorrow. Thank God there is His forgiveness which helps you through the minefield of human failure, though it doesn’t cancel out all the results of your failures. But knowing that God has forgiven you, or will forgive you, will help you take His hand and face tomorrow.
The marvelous grace of God gives tomorrow a golden hue as beautiful as the sunrise that paints the sky. Though we’re undeserving we can still hold on to that hope that tomorrow can be different and not worry about what may happen or could happen. That’s what grace is about. It is also what hope is about, and what God is about. It is what takes you through today, friend, and helps you face tomorrow without fear or worry. Thank God tomorrow can be different. Tomorrow can be beautiful no matter what happens today.
Resource reading: James 4:1-17
